


Shades

by neosaiyanangel



Category: Kim Possible (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Mixed-Romance and Friendship, One Shot Collection, Various Ratings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-13 10:36:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21242705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neosaiyanangel/pseuds/neosaiyanangel
Summary: A few Drakkim-ish drabbles/one-shots. Nothin' too big or too flashy; just interesting little stories with the characters. Ranges from tolerating each other to full-blown crushes to more. May or may not be all the same universe of sorts.





	1. Shades of Gray

'_There are shades of gray!_'

Kim thought about what her arch-foe had shouted during their encounter at the jewelry store days after the plot had been foiled. Shades of gray? What kind of idea was that? Good is good and evil is evil. There is no such thing as being able to have 'shades of gray' to it. They were polar opposites and that was that.

But the more she thought about it, she began to realize that there was a bit of shading to be done on both sides. Shego was definitely more evil than Drakken and his silly take-over-the-world schemes, and Kim had more good in her than Ron. She could barely lie to save her life and he did it daily ('little white lies' still counted as lies in her book). GJ was good, but dabbled in things that would be questionable to most.

Not to mention Wade and his habit of hacking into things he shouldn't. Like her diary, for instance.

Okay. Maybe she _did_ have to admit that Drakken had a point. He wasn't nearly as evil as he could be. A fact that Kim was relieved for.


	2. Change of Pace

Kim felt a bit out of sorts with the situation. On one hand, it was reassuring to her that Ron was finally taking charge and being something more than 'the distraction'. On the other hand, the situation that had developed was something that she wasn't used to.

The two of them had gone to stop Drakken and Shego once again (some sort of plan to destroy the world's economy with something called subprime lending) and, as had been happening lately, Ron took on Shego while Kim took care of Drakken. It wasn't too hard; the serum that Wade had developed stopped Drakken's plant powers cold and it wasn't too hard from there.

Shego, however, had amped up her attacks with some sort of gauntlet that increased her power so that not even the battlesuit could stand a direct attack. Ron's MMP was the only thing that could keep up with her now. So Kim was stuck on the side of the battlefield with Drakken while they fought it out. By the fourth encounter, it had gotten boring just standing there uncomfortably. She needed to do…something.

Like maybe strike up a conversation.

"...this...hmm...is this how you and Ron always were? Back when it was me and Shego fighting?" Kim had to shout the last part due to the fighters having somehow smashed their way through one of the back walls.

Drakken was glad for the distraction. Irritated by being defeated again, but he had already recovered from the failure.

"Besides a few slapfights here and there? Yes." His response was muffled slightly from the crashing sound that came from the room next to them. "Sooo..." He really didn't want to. He REALLY didn't want to. The intense boredom, however, made him decide that it was more of a need than a want and found himself asking, "you wouldn't happen to be interested in a bit of cocoa moo while they finish up, would you?"

Kim blinked. "...how long do the fights usually last? I never really kept track…"

"An hour, give or take five minutes."

Kim checked her watch and winced. "It's only been 10 minutes."

After weighing the chances of Drakken escaping against her chance of dying from the lack of activity, she decided to let him loose. Undoing Drakken's bindings was slightly harder than it had been to make them. "Fine. Let's go get some chocola-"

"Cocoa moo, no chocolate milk," Drakken interrupted, raising a newly-freed finger in protest to her grievous error.

Kim sighed in defeat. "Whatever." She helped him up and followed him to the kitchen as Ron and Shego bounced through, their respective blue and green auras sending their shadows dancing against the wall. "I never realized how **boring** it is on the other end." A glance behind her made her feel regret at her newly acquired and entirely unwanted role.

As they were walking away, a curious thought came to Kim's mind. "Why _do _you call it cocoa moo, anyway?"


	3. Wizards and Warlocks Anyone?

Kim sighed as her half-elf ranger fell.

"Sorry Cousin Kim. That puts your character at -11 hit points. You were killed in the heat of battle."

"By my _own teammate_." She glared across the table at the person in her party that had struck her down. "You do realize that the object of the game is to defeat the enemies and _not_ kill your own party members, right?"

"Yes I do! However, when given the opportunity to defeat my opponent, I have to take it." Drakken crowed. "I just beat you, Kim Possible! Haha!" As he was celebrating finally beating Kim at something, Larry the Game Keeper rolled the dice. "I just—"

"The gorgon just scored a critical hit on the human sorcerer. You've been killed in battle as well," Larry said, pointing at the 20.

"What?! But…but…" Drakken's mouth flopped open and shut several times. "But I beat Kim Possible!"

"If you had been _paying attention_, you would've realized that we're supposed to be rescuing the princess." Kim snorted. "I thought you said that you've played this game before?"

"Of course I have! …in college…"

Kim's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "So why start up again now?"

"I get lonely sometimes, okay? Just thought it'd be a good way to spend my time. Didn't realize I had to approve my activities with my arch-foe," Drakken huffed. "Anyway, why are you playing? Aren't cheerleaders too good for the nerd squad activities?"

"Cousin Kim is spending time with me." Larry laugh-snorted a bit. "My mother didn't think that we knew enough about each other and figured we should bond over some of my games."

"Yes, and I'm certainly glad that she insisted we do," Kim added with clenched teeth.

"Hey! Can we get back to the game people?" Ned protested. "We still have two hours left to play tonight."

"But we all died," Kim said in surprise. "How can we keep playing?"

"Ah!" Drakken smiled and wagged a finger in her direction. "That's the beauty of this game. If you die once, you can start up again as a different person."

"So ye olde adventurers wish to traverse the horrors of—"

"Yes yes, of course we do." Drakken waved his hand like it was an obvious thing. "Well Miss Possible? Shall we show these people how it's done?"

Kim thought for a second before smirking a little. "As long as you don't try to shoot me with lightning again."


	4. Dreadful Dinings

"This is your fault."

Drakken grunted in annoyance at Kim's bland, resigned statement. That was somewhere around the 30th time that she had told him that or some variation of it in just the last hour while they were getting ready. And while he did accept some of the responsibility, he most surely was _not_ the only one at fault. After all, she had been the one who had told him to try and be 'more chummy' with his boss!

"This is part your fault too!" he protested loudly, trying to compensate for the engines of the hovercar as she drove them to their destination. "I wouldn't have even _talked_ with him if you hadn't told me to try and make him like me."

Kim shot him a small glare out of the corner of her eye to try and keep up the fight, but mentally gave him some credit. He did have a point there. She kept arguing mostly because she didn't want him to be giddy from defeating her in an argument.

Seven years after they had stopped being arch-enemies, he still paraded around whenever he beat her at something. And the extra energy Drakken would get from his excitement would likely make things go from bad to worse, fast.

"Drakken, you know that you would have had to talk to him sooner or later," she pointed out, not taking her eyes off the road to see his reaction. It wasn't necessary. The flustered grunts and stuttering told her all she needed to know. A smile crept onto her face. Even when they were riding straight into the dragon's den, his strange mannerisms managed to make her forget the looming disaster for just a second.

Her smile turned into a grimace when she remembered just how doomed they were. Drakken managed to catch her expression change even in his impotent throes of angrish.

"Are you hurting? Does your stomach hurt? _Please_ tell me your stomach hurts!" he practically begged. While he was up for most challenges, this was one he had not been anticipating so soon. He was hoping that there was something that could help to delay having to visit them.

"Nope. And even if it did, I'm not going to turn around and go home."

Drakken sighed in disappointment. She just had to go and wince in pain like that and get his hopes up! He crumpled into the seat in disappointment.

"Nnngh…this is pointless. You know he doesn't like me, especially for dating you," he grumbled. The blue scientist resisted throwing a tantrum, instead using one of the techniques he had learned in his anger management class to calm himself down. Counting for several minutes was a boring but effective way to control himself. His group therapist would be so proud!

Unfortunately, the hole the anger left was quickly filled by self-pity. Drakken sniffled a few times. Why did he always get the short end of the stick? He finally got a good job, was getting to invent things on the side…he'd even managed to catch a hot girlfriend! And now he might lose it all. This must be that karma thing that Shego had talked about sometimes.

Suddenly the mad scientist felt a hand in his. He looked down at the hand in surprise, and his gaze traveled up an arm until it reached his girlfriend's face, which bore a peculiar expression. It was strange; that expression looked really familiar and yet he couldn't place exactly when he had seen it on her before.

"Don't worry." Kim spared a glance back to her now befuddled boyfriend and gave him a confident smile. "It'll all be okay. No matter what happens, you'll still have your hot girlfriend." She blushed and turned to watch the sky outside of the hovercar again, making sure to keep the car steady. A smile graced her face. The joy she felt at coming back momentarily outweighed the dread she felt for the possible disaster that could happen. "We'll be there in a minute. I can see the street they live on."

Drakken blinked in confusion for a second before he realized why she'd suddenly said that. "I was thinking out loud again, wasn't I?"

Kim blushed harder. "Yeah."

"…oops."

A blush slowly developed on his own face and he tried to look anywhere but at Kim though he tightened his grip on her hand. Just to reassure her. He certainly didn't need it. Even if he was still feeling crummy in the tummy.

They landed the hovercar on the front lawn, the redhead somehow managing to bring it down with only one hand as Drakken had refused to let her other hand go. She looked up at her childhood home. It was still surprising that they had managed to rebuild it exactly as it had been before. Loosening her grip on her boyfriend's hand and sliding it free, she hopped out of the hovercar, landing on her feet on the driveway.

The blue man reluctantly followed her up the short path to the house. He only remembered this house from the blueprints he had of it in hopes of somehow being able to strike at his former arch-foe when she was off her guard. That hope fell through quickly when he realized that all of the members of the household had foiled his plan at least once at some point.

Drakken waited behind Kim as she knocked on the door. If his boss decided to be wrathful, at least this way his girlfriend could protect him. The door was answered almost as soon as the knocking stopped.

"Kimmie-cub!"

"Hi dad!"

The father and daughter shared a hug, each happy to be able to see the other. It had been several weeks since they'd last gotten to hug due to both of their hectic schedules. James let go of his little girl and held her at arm's length.

"You look great." He ushered her into the house and gave an icy stare to his employee. "Hello Drew," James growled.

Drakken waited as his superior walked into the house, leaving the door open with no welcome. The blue man frowned and entered cautiously. You never knew when someone would set up a trap.

Kim was waiting just inside, looking at her nervous boyfriend with a bemused smirk. "Just remember: This is your fault."

She giggled at his sudden fit of grumbles and teeth-grinding before he crossed his arms and let her guide him to the family room.


	5. The Necronomiconvection Oven used by a Lethal Chef that Bakes a Recipe for Disaster with a Grain of Salt which Cooks Up Trouble

"Wow." Drakken stared at the monstrosity, barely capable of grasping what it was. The mad scientist had created many horrifying things in his long career of villainy. He was no stranger to eldritch abominations or breaking the laws of the universe. But this…this was just barely within his realm of comprehension.

It had been _years_ since something had managed to have this effect on him. Partly because he had mostly stopped all of his morally questionable research, but mostly because few things were as hard to understand as this.

With awe clear on his face, he turned to the person that had created said thing and asked, "How in the world did you make this? I mean—" his arm waved at the pot of…stuff "—_how_? It shouldn't even be possible! I mean…I mean…" a choking sound erupted from his throat as he glanced at it again "…_**tentacles**_!"

Kim stood, staring with a sort of vague horror at the mass of what should not be. No movement or recognition of being addressed. In fact, she hadn't moved an inch since her first scream of confusion when she had first checked on her little experiment. Drakken was just about to ask louder when she replied quietly.

"I have no idea." The color had completely drained from her face, her red hair looking even brighter in the contrast. "I just…you said to experiment…that I couldn't be as bad as my family warned you." She suddenly turned and grabbed Drakken by his collar of his labcoat and shook him, crying "_I JUST POURED SOME SALT AND NOODLES IN WATER AND BAKED IT_!"

Drakken, subject to minor head trauma for a few seconds, managed to slip out of his coat and fall to the floor. For some reason that didn't stop Kim from continuing to shake the coat. The blue man stood up and just watched his girlfriend for a few minutes. The redhead continued, oblivious to the fact that the coat was empty and that he was standing staring right at her.

He looked from her to the thing that should not be. The flesh of it bubbled as small appendages—some ending in claws, most erupting into tentacles that spread out into smaller tentacles, and a handful developing fully into miniature human arms—burst forth from it before they withered and fell back into the writhing mass. What Drakken assumed were mouths split open all over the blob and shrieked, moaned, cried out in many voices before they were once again swallowed by itself.

It must have some sort of insanity effect. How he was mostly immune he wasn't sure. All Drakken knew was that this thing needed to be gotten rid of.

As Kim continued to shake the coat mercilessly, caught in some sort of mind-altering state, Drakken left the kitchen intent on solving the problem. He returned several minutes later with a small (by his usual standards) cannon of some sort.

"Can't leave you sitting around here," he said to the writhing mass of amorphous flesh. "I wish I could keep you if just to figure out how my Cherry Pie managed to make you…" he lifted the gun up onto his shoulder and aimed "…but I've run into enough alternate dimensional beasts to know when one is just too much trouble. Toodles!"

With a laugh of mad joy, Drakken depressed the trigger with his palm. A flash of purple light burst from the end of the cannon and encompassed the pot. The thing let out a shriek from all of its many warping mouths before it, the pot, and most of the stove and counter next to the stove vanished.

Kim stiffened, dropping the coat she had been shaking and blinked in confusion. "Wh—what just happened?"

"Oh nothing," Drakken replied before he flipped his cannon over and blew on the smoking end. "Hm. Must've overloaded something."

"Nothing? _NOTHING?_" The redhead waved a hand at the destroyed kitchen. "You call _that_nothing?"

"Ah ah ah! You forget, I've had to deal with certain people blowing up my homes—"

"Evil lairs."

"—a ton of times before! This little bit of damage is nothing." Drakken winced as he noticed the smell of gas. His vines snaked out from his collar and quickly tied off the ends of the pipes that had been inadvertently zapped to a different place in the space/time continuum along with the oven. "Eheh…just have to get it fixed."

"Right," Kim said, eyebrow raised. "And this has nothing to do with me having tried to bake something?"

"…weeeelllll…" Drakken scratched his head. "Let's just say that I'll be the one doing all the cooking from now on. Including making basic sandwiches."

The young woman groaned. "This is why I don't try to cook. I end up making something melt or a cake batter explodes…or that one time when I somehow brought a chicken back to life…"

The blue man stared at Kim blankly.

"…what?" she asked defensively. "I can do anything, but there are some things that I'm not very good at." A flash of anger hit her at admitting a fault which she immediately bit back. It was something she needed to get better at. Even the girl that can do everything can't be perfect at everything.

"...remind me not to let you mess with anything in my laboratory. If you can create something that horrific from just cooking materials, I would be horrified to see what would happen with proper supplies." He paused for a second. "Actually, I would be thrilled. But since we just got my lab cleaned up from the trolling problem I would prefer to spend some more time in it _before_ we do any sort of permanent damage."

"Why would I—"

"Because baking is the science of YUM!" Drakken cried as he posed dramatically, a arm raised into the air.

Kim narrowed her eyes and growled. She was _so_ not in the mood for his jokes.

The blue man stood for several minutes and waited for Kim to respond with something besides a growl. The only thing she did was go from glaring at him to rubbing her head. He suddenly realized that maybe now wasn't the time to tell jokes. After all, he didn't even know the possible side effects of insanity induced by a universal horror.

Slowly and sheepishly, the scientist let his arm drop. "I read that in one of my favorite comics once."

"…" Kim turned away from him and began walking to the door.

"Where are you going?" he asked, somewhat lost.

"I'm going to go see if there are any places to buy kitchen parts from in the area. And a new oven." She paused at the doorway before turning back to the confused man and saying, "Also, 'Cherry Pie' won't work." A shudder of revulsion spread through her as she continued with, "It feels like something my parents would call me."

Drakken folded his arms in annoyance as she went into the main hallway. Why does she have to say no to all of his nickname suggestions? None of them were as bad as Bubble Butt!

He reached into his coat and pulled out a small, thick piece of paper. His small but nimble fingers quickly unfolded it into a long sheet of paper which he took over to what was left of the counter. After he made sure he wasn't accidentally setting it down in any possible remaining water, he pulled a pen out from the same pocket and crossed out 'Cherry Pie'. It was placed between 'Baby Mama' (which he had heard from tv and had thought sounded like a common nickname in a relationship) and 'All That' on his list. The title of the paper read 'Nicknames for Cuddly Bear Kim' with the Cuddly Bear part mostly erased from existence.

"Hm." Drakken looked his list over again and realized that all but 4 of the names on his list of over 200 possibilities were crossed out. "I think I need a bigger list."


	6. Friendly Advice

It was finally over. Weeks of chasing Drakken and Shego around the world, trying to figure out their grand scheme. Dating a boy that was the person of her dreams simply to find that he had feet of clay. Picking the false love over one that had been there for her always.

It all came to a messy head this night and she was glad for it. Though it was painful all around Kim had been glad for it to happen. Otherwise she probably would have kept blinders on and completely missed the boy that was willing to be with her no matter what.

"KP?" that very boy asked as they stood outside of Bueno Nacho headquarters, watching the procession of villains being put into the police van. Shego was put in first looking the roughest Kim had ever seen, her hair splaying wildly everywhere it could go. It wasn't a surprise; she _had_ been kicked into an electrical tower and managed to survive.

For a second, an unworthy feeling of dissatisfaction at the villainess' survival fluttered through the heroine's head.

"Yeah?" the redhead said, ignoring the desire to go over and beat on the battered woman again.

"I just wanted to…you know…" Ron cleared his throat nervously, making the beads of sweat that had gathered on his brow trickle down, "…make sure that you knew that I wasn't doing the whole 'end-of-the-world love-you' speech thingy when we were tied to the cactus. Not a spur of the moment thing that I said because we weren't going to make it. 'cause I really do like you."

"Like-like?" Kim couldn't help asking with quirked lips.

"Yeah, like-like," he responded, sticking his tongue out at her mild teasing. The henchmen didn't even need directed into the van. They went in voluntarily and with no protest, making Kim wonder if they even considered the chance of winning.

She saw Drakken directed into and chained to the van last. While he had been silent up until then, there was a certain aura about him. It wasn't any sort of feeling that he'd ever given off before. Kim couldn't place what it was until she caught a small mumble from his lips. She was no savant for lip-reading, but she managed to catch just what he had told himself.

Something snapped into place.

"Wait," she told the officers who were just about to slam the doors of the transport shut.

"Ma'am?" the female officer asked. "We need to get the prisoners to jail."

"I just need a minute. To talk with one of them." When the two officials traded questioning looks she added, "I need to tell them something."

They hesitated, clearly torn. "We can't just let you talk with the prisoners," the man said slowly. ""It would be considered a violation of protocol to let a civilian talk with them now."

"She isn't a simple civilian," Ron interjected. "She's Kim Possible! THE teen heroine herself. Police assistant, savior of the world several times over, and all-around good guy. If anyone should get the non-civilian label, it's her." As if to add some emphasis to the point he said pointedly, "KP does this stuff _in her spare time_."

The officers looked at each other again, the male shrugging. "Eh, I don't really see the problem. Not like they'll be able to hurt her."

"Trust me, it's not KP you'll have to worry about," the blonde sidekick reassured him.

The woman guarding the transport stood silently for a few seconds before her shoulders drooped. "Okay Miss Possible." She gestured at the van. "A minute. No more."

As Kim stepped into the police transport, her best friend gave a whoop. "And now the hero goes to give the bad guys the lesson."

"A lesson?" the snide yet painfully weak voice of her nemesis chortled. After a quick cough the green woman drawled, "And here I thought trying to kill me was enough. Now you're gonna torture me with an after-school special?"

The redhead ignored the barb, walking past Shego as if she hadn't said a word. She also ignored the burning pain of betrayal that coursed through her heart as the words she heard Eric say echoed in her head.

"_Around here they call me Synthodrone 901."_

"Drakken." The madman that had caused her so much grief was staring blankly at the wall of the van. The rambling that issued from his mouth was aimless, his voice carrying a distinct layer of pain and hopelessness as he attempted to deny his defeat.

"I was so close…it doesn't make sense. I'd accounted for her hip teenage attitude with my equally hip teenage boy. She was thoroughly wooed. I shouldn't have lost. I shouldn't have lost…"

"Drakken!" Usually Kim was all for her enemies wallowing in their failure. They might actually learn something about themselves that way. However, she wasn't in the mood to play around.

The blue man snapped to attention, rocketing straight up in his seat so fast the redhead wondered if he might have strained a muscle. He apparently really had been completely focused on his own thoughts. His reaction once seeing who had said his name was a quick moment of surprise before settling into an intense scowl.

"Kim Possible," Drakken spat out like a curse. "I suppose you've come to take a bit of revenge for the trick I played on you?" He snorted. "Like destroying my grand plan wasn't enough. Now you'll rub my face in it? Perhaps give me the speech about how much better than me you are?"

"Dr D, will you just _stop whining_?" Shego growled from her corner of the van. "It gets _really_ old and does _nothing_ to help the mood." Several henchmen grumbled in agreement with her.

"Bah! You don't understand. NO ONE understands!"

Kim hesitated for a few moments with what she had come to say, her resolve wavering at his anger bordering on hatred. But she didn't change her mind. Somehow, she knew that this would change things. Good or bad she wasn't sure. Anything was better than a repeat of this situation though, so she pushed forth.

"Drew Lipsky," Kim started, the chorus of chuckles and an amused repeat of the name sounding from his henchmen, "I acknowledge your genius."

"You all jus—wait, what?" Drakken changed his tune fast enough to clip his tongue with his teeth. Much to everyone's surprise he didn't immediately began whining about his injured flesh. Instead, he openly gawked at his arch-foe. "What did you just say?"

Kim sighed, focusing her mind to say exactly what she meant. "I acknowledge your genius. You are smart. Not in the classic way" his gawking turned to a frown for a moment "but you're still a genius."

"But he hasn't invented a single thing since that stupid shampoo!" one of the henchmen complained.

"Shut up Lutz!" Drakken barked. "Nobody asked you."

"While you've been very…unoriginal as of late," the heroine admitted, "you still managed to come up with a plan that _almost_ worked. You nearly conquered the world with a fast food chain, toys, and growing nano-machines. Not even Dementor has gotten this close."

The blue man preened at the positive words. "He certainly hasn't!" he chirped with a grin that bordered on a sneer.

"But…"

"But…?" Drakken parroted, his attention completely on his teen foe.

"You could do so much better if you weren't so evil," Kim said.

"He certainly can't do any worse," Shego snarked from her seat.

"How do you figure that?" the villain demanded sharply.

"Evil's beneath you," she answered with a shrug. With the skeptical glare from her audience, Kim continued "You have invented things I've never even thought of. The brain-switch machine? My parents didn't even think it was _possible_ to do that. And you can improve on previous inventions in ways that are just amazing."

"As this last caper has proven," Drakken supplied, his proud smile having faded, replaced with a contemplative frown.

"Exactly." The teenager turned to leave before finishing with, "I just think that you're too smart to be doing evil."

After Kim stepped out of the van, the police officers slammed the doors shut and locked them. As they drove off down the road, Ron let out a low whistle.

"That wasn't exactly the big life lesson that I had thought you were gonna give," the boy said. He scratched the back of his head. "Sorry KP, but I think those were wasted words. I'm sure Drakken's probably thought on this sorta thing a bajillion times by now."

"Maybe," she replied. "I just felt that it needed to be said. Now then…" She presented her arm "I believe you were going to take me to prom?"

* * *

"Princess sure was off her rocker tonight," Shego sighed as she melted her cuffs off. "Ugh, I HATE wearing those things." She looked at Drakken, who seemed to have fallen asleep. "Now how 'bout we bust outta here for now? …Drakken?"

He kept his head down, refusing to even look at any of the others. And unknown to them he was smiling the first genuine smile he'd ever had for over 20 years.

"No thanks, Shego."


	7. Seed

College. Who would've thought that one, simple word could send a chill of fear through Kimberly Anne Possible, world adventurer extraordinaire? It seemed such an innocuous word, too. College.

Practically a rite of passage in this day and age. A time to let your hair down and have fun. A few times Kim wondered when the purpose of college had drifted from learning to growing up. It likely had something to do with the dropping age of those attending, she supposed.

It wasn't going to be a big mystery or exploration period for her, though. She was all prepped for her life. Being groomed to be the next head of GJ, dating her best friend since pre-K, involving herself in any and all extracurriculars she could manage, and keeping her grade point at 4.0 would be a breeze. She could probably still be a world-saving heroine, too. College couldn't be that hard, no matter how intimidating it felt.

Of course, that led her to wondering about how Ron would do. It wasn't that she didn't believe in him, far from it. Just... His carefree attitude and lax studying habits worried her. If he did manage to get into one of her choice colleges, and that was an admittedly big 'if', would he be able to keep himself together enough to even finish?

She would have talked to him about her fears for him, but for now Kim felt that she shouldn't be bothering Ron when he was studying for the standardized tests that would prove he was competent enough to enter college. His grade point upon graduation was worryingly low, so he would have to have a high score to at least show he had potential. Considering how focused he'd been on applying to many of the colleges she had, it was a surprise to Kim that he hadn't even taken the SAT or ACT. Then again, if he had he wouldn't be her Ron.

So now he was on lockdown while he studied for the SAT. It wasn't a big bother, though; the only alert she'd gotten in the last few days was the one she was en route for. Wade had picked up strange energy readings from Drakken's island which necessitated looking into, with or without a pardon.

It wasn't like it was going to be hard. Shego had supposedly retired and he was still hench-free as far as Kim knew. His plant powers did add some danger to the sitch, but it was just Drakken.

It should be a cinch.

* * *

'Next time' Kim thought to herself grumpily as she backflipped out of danger 'I will not tempt the universe into making things harder than I think they'll be!'

What had sounded like a simple sitch was quickly growing out of hand. Kim had expected the usual Drakken sics his goon(s) on his foe, she defeats them with some effort, he is foiled somehow, usually through a goof by either him or Ron, and runs off yelling about how things weren't over.

What was actually happening was far stranger and so not routine. Drakken was doing something suspicious, alright; attempting to make an orbital laser to hold the world hostage was most certainly not one of the things that was allowed with his pardon. 'Attempt' was the operating word, as the large, clanky machine she had seen didn't look like it would be able to take a light breeze, let alone entering orbit.

Once she let her presence be known, she realized that Drakken wasn't okay. He looked... Well, terrible, to be frank. Even more erratic and messy than usual, his hair falling out of the miniature ponytail and the circles under his eyes larger than she remembered. She doubted he'd slept in the last few days, or even changed clothes.

He was also acting like a nutter.

Kim tried to recover her footing as she landed. Looking up for a few scant seconds of recovery, she noted that the control room was completely trashed. There was no possibility of him being able to carry out his scheme, whatever it was, now. She could simply leave, right now, and pretend that he was taken care of. It was barely an attempt even, what with his obviously slipshod work on it.

But... She looked at her distressed, frantic foe and felt a flutter of pity. Why, she wasn't sure. Could have been because she'd never seen him quite this lost, ever. And, her more logical side noted, a lost, angry madman could be much worse than a regular bumbling one. At least the regular one would be predictable.

So Kim stayed to try at least help Drakken calm down. How she would do that was still a mystery, though, as he seemed just as energized as he had at the beginning of their encounter. Not likely she would tire him out. Talking him down looked to be the best option.

That, however, wasn't going quite as well as she'd hoped it would.

"You don't get it! I HAVE to be evil! There IS no other way! I'm no good otherwise."

He'd been ranting like that for the last half-hour of what could be considered fighting. Usually, though, there were two sides trading blows. Right now, Kim was completely on the defensive from Drakken's annoyingly adaptable vines. He barely even had to move; any time she tried to get in close, another group of vines would emerge and drive her off. How he was controlling so many without getting them twisted together she couldn't figure out.

"Funny. You could've fooled me, with the Lorwardian sitch. I think, maybe, you're better than you think you are," Kim said calmly, watching his reactions. "Everyone else thought so too. You got an award and a pardon for your past crimes from defeating Warmonga and Warhok's warmachines. I certainly couldn't destroy that many! That's pretty impressive."

"I...I..." His face twisted, flashes of hope crossing his face, before he winced. Kim saw something painful in his eyes as he considered her words before he growled and spat out, "YOU'RE LYING!" A torrent of vines descended from the ceiling where she hadn't noticed them gathering. Cursing privately, Kim tumbled to the side and used the momentum to push herself into the air just as they came swarming her position again. "I'm no good! I'm useless! I need to MAKE everyone care for me!"

"You can't make people care about you," she tried to reason. "Care needs to come naturally. Forcing people to care would be like trying to force them to... I don't know... Blindly obey of their own free will."

"How would you know?! You're little Miss Perfect! EVERYONE loves you!" he growled. "Let's see how you would do in my position, huh? An old, beaten-down loser with blue skin and a horticulture problem! Could you spin gold from it?! COULD YOU?!" He gasped and shuddered, his breath having trouble catching up with all the activity he and his vines were doing.

While Kim had heard many a villainous speech, most of them centering on how she would never be able to defeat them, she never remembered hearing one quite like this. In fact, this sort of speech didn't fit Drakken's MO at all. It didn't make sense for him to just lose his composure as badly as this. Sure, Shego left him and he didn't really have any henchmen around, but wouldn't it just be easy to rehire new henches?

Though it was odd for Shego to just leave like that. She'd talked to the villainess a few days ago at yet another party thrown in support of the heroes of the Lorwardian incident, before there were any hints of Drakken's scheming again. Shego had mentioned that Drakken needed to grow up, especially now that he had been given another chance. Kim did agree to an extent that Shego was an emotional crutch for Drakken, but...

Now that she'd thought about it, Kim didn't remember seeing Drakken at that party. Or at any other one, barring the award ceremony.

As for the other henches, Kim'd remembered the time when they had left him. None too loyal to the man that paid their wages, when he could. Then again, consistency was probably the key. It was a little strange that they left en masse like that, even with Ron's coaching on statistics. Seemed like a relief to them to leave their bumbling employer and his violent assistant behind.

Shego left him. The henchmen left him. From the way he was acting, all of his villain friends left him too. Did his mother even talk to him anymore, after the Diablo incident? She'd been having Wade do surveillance on her most persistent enemy; Wade hadn't reported anything to him for a while. There used to be numerous messages from his mother, she remembered. Kim had made the mistake of trying to listen to one. Talk about a beloved smother.

But now, even after he had saved the world, Wade still hadn't reported her sending him anything. Did something happen? And what about Eddie? Other family? Any other possible friends? Did any of them care enough to even talk to Drakken?

Suddenly, Kim knew.

She knew what she needed to do to help him. Listening to him, now, and thinking about what she knew about him led her to a sudden realization.

Years later, she would recall this moment as the point in her life when things began to truly change. The connection she made would change her focus and tangle things up in the most confusing, painfully complicated mess that she'd ever encountered in her life. Kim had never questioned before the role of heroes and villains in the world, or even how a villain is made. She never questioned her role in the world, either.

This was the day that broke her perception of black and white. Looking at Drak-.. No, Drew Lipsky, standing there, obviously in pain, broke through her mental barriers and constructed stereotypes.

He was no villain. He never was, Kim finally admitted to herself. The one time he had been an honest threat was during the Diablo incident, and even then it was her own weakness that nearly let him win.

He was no villain. He was just a lonely man.

Kim charged into the mass of vines and flowers that were bursting from under Drew's labcoat, uncaring of the possible damage. They were trying to get her away from him, their angered father. Ignoring them, she planned the most efficient route she could to get to him. The longer she stood around thinking, the more he could continue to damage himself and his home.

The panic in his eyes told her that she was too close for his plants to matter. He winced back, eyes shut as he flinched away from the heroine. It was an expected move, to be knocked out cold by a punch. Or maybe a roundhouse kick? Kim couldn't remember her usual move to take her foe out of the game.

She did neither.

Instead, she slipped her arms around him and gave him a hug.

Drew's surprise and confusion did nothing to slow his plants down. They slammed into her, ripped at her clothing and flesh, trying to force her off their master. Kim endured. She had to. She had to prove to Drew that he wasn't alone, that he didn't need to prove anything to anyone.

His body was stiff, uncomfortable, unfamiliar with the embrace she was giving him. Was she the only one besides his mother to give him a hug, Kim wondered? Had he ever had any friends who spared him a friendly pat on the back, or even invited him over to eat? Sparing a look at his baffled face, she decided to settle on no until she could ask him without getting swarmed by mutant vines.

Her own father had told a few stories on Drew and their treatment of him. She hadn't considered it before, but now that she thought on it, trying to ignore the thrashing she was taking, she recognized the cruelty inflicted on the now-blue scientist. Her father and his friends had called it hazing, but she doubted that things would have ever gotten better for Drew with her father's posse.

He had been trying to hold his breath, Kim realized as he accidentally let it out in one big release. She made sure to keep her body close to him, too tight for the plant to easily tear them apart but not so tight as to cut off his breathing. It wouldn't really help if in the course of showing she cared he was suffocated.

She found it curious that the same vines which managed to crush alien technology into scrap weren't able to tear her off of Drew. It could be a command from their master, whether he knew it or not, to not cause any permanent damage to living creatures. It would explain how Warmonga and Warhok escaped the viney grip. If the aliens had been strong enough to tear their own ship and weapons apart, she doubted they would have considered them good enough to use.

Drakken, for his part, was completely taken aback by Kim's behavior. Where was all of the fist-throwing and cartwheeling? Surely trying to bearhug him was a waste of time. He was pretty sure she was doing it wrong, too!

'Of course' he mused to himself as he unconsciously relaxed into the strange grapple 'this could be one of those weird situations where I show her how it's done and end up knocking myself out.' He'd only fallen for that once, darn it, and it was embarrassing every time he thought about it. Shego didn't let him forget about it for weeks afterward, either.

Frowning, he began to forget just what in the world was going on around him. Once he got to thinking about his former friend… Or was she ever his friend? She went with him to karaoke, but he'd worked that into her contract. Did she ever do anything willingly with him that didn't require a bit of a bonus somehow?

No, not likely. She'd told him that she'd call him, not vice versa. He wasn't supposed to bug her, now that her time was hers alone. Probably the only good thing he could say was that she really did fulfill her part of the contract about alien abductions. He'd thought it would've been the greys from Area 51 that would get him again. Good thing he'd kept that part generalized. Otherwise Shego might not have gone to save him.

Of course the buffoon would've still gone after Kimberly, but he wasn't sure that they would have bothered to save him, too. They probably blamed him for it happening. He wasn't the one at fault, though! It was all Warmonga's fault. Stupid alien being too stupid to tell that he wasn't the 'Great Blue' whatever. It was just natural for him to try and take advantage of it!

Why, oh why didn't he just tell the green Neanderthal the truth? It would have saved the entire mess AND he probably wouldn't have lost Shego! Then again, if she'd realized he wasn't the Great Blue, she would've just thrown him out the airlock...

Stupid alien. Stupid subordinates. Stupid Shego! All of them were just stupid! He could get by on his own just fine. Ah! That's right. That's why he'd started with the satellite thing in the first place! Blast all of them to atoms, then make everyone else like him. They'd HAVE to like him, if he was their lord and master.

Oh. Wait. He took a quick look around the room, surprised. Somehow, he'd managed to destroy the satellite, the launch controls, the entertainment center, and the security system. Drat.

...hadn't Kim Possible been here?

Nearly squawking in astonishment, Drakken found her still trying to use that weird grapple on him. His vines had stopped moving a bit ago, he was pretty sure, so why wasn't she trying to knock him out?

"Erm..." he stammered, unsure of what to say. "Uh... Is there... Any particular reason you haven't just... Er... Knocked me out cold? Or is that what you're trying?" If it was, then the plant mutations must have been more extensive than he thought...

"Dra-.. Drew?" she said, hushed, holding him tightly to herself. Strange how just hugging him was shocking enough to have knocked him back into a semblance of sanity. Deciding not to have a preamble as it wouldn't have mattered much to the absent-minded scientist anyway, she continued, "It's okay. I'll be your friend."

Kim didn't miss the double-take her offer got. Whether it was from her wanting to be his friend or her thinking he would want to be friends with her, she didn't know. But offering her friendship and being rejected would be better than not offering at all.

Drakken was having an entirely different line of thought than what Kim had assumed. He was more than a little baffled and curious. When had been the last time someone asked him to be their friend?

None of his henches, for certain.

Shego? Only in his nicest dreams.

College? No, no. No one wanted to bother with the stereotypically dorky teenager who was ugly and smarter than them. And James, Chen, and Ramesh... He'd had to ask the posse if he could join them. Probably one of the worst decisions he'd made in his life.

Secondary school? Primary school? He was drawing a blank there, too. No friends that he could remember. Not that he could even remember that much from so long ago, but he was pretty sure he hadn't even had friends. He would've never said no if someone had offered.

So, this was an entirely novel experience for him. If it was genuine or not, though, was still in debate.

"You do realize that your attempt to knock me out is failing, right?" he remarked nervously, deciding to sidestep his foe's odd out-of-the-blue statement. Mostly because he didn't know how to respond to it. "I think you're supposed to cut blood flow off with pressure or something. You're doing it too lightly for anything to happen."

Kim made an irritated noise in her throat before she noticed the apprehensive titter in his voice. He wasn't teasing her. Drew honestly thought she was trying, and failing, to knock him out.

"Well duh," she lightly commented, though he still cringed from the words. "I wasn't trying to knock you out."

"Well then... Uh... What are you doing?"

The redhead gave him a blank look. "I'm giving you a hug," she said slowly, wondering if he was messing with her.

"What?! You just-.. I can't believe-.. This isn't a hug!" Drakken incredulously asserted. What in the world was Kimberly trying to pull? "You're barely applying pressure!"

Surprised, Kim asked, "So how do you give a hug?"

Annoyed at her obvious incompetence, he picked Kim up into what he considered a hug. Lipsky family standards being what they were, Kim found herself in what Drew had accused her of trying to do earlier. It wasn't until she tried pushing him away that the back-breaking hug was released.

"THAT is how a hug is done," Drew nodded in satisfaction.

"Ugh..." Kim wheezed, trying to regain her lost breath. That seemed more like an attempt to kill her than a hug! Annoyed at the rough treatment, she complained, "Who in the world hugs like that?"

"Myself and my mother do!" After a slight pause, the blue man reluctantly added, "And Shego and Miss Hall." He wasn't going to include the Bebes. They were malfunctioning anyway, especially model 1.0. Nearly broke his back while the rest of the posse laughed at him.

The heroine blinked a few times, almost disbelieving that the only people that had hugged him was his mother, his former employee, and DNAmy. DNAmy wasn't too hard to believe a hug from, nor his mother. Shego was an odd one. Odds were that was from the Moodulator. Even odder was the rough hug they all gave him.

"Most people don't hug like that." She shook her head and stifled a laugh at Drew's strangely dubious gaze. "It's usually gentle, like the one I was giving you."

Drakken was having trouble believing that. After all, he'd always had hugs like the one he'd given Kimberly. ...oh. Huh. He hugged his foe. And it was nice. That was...

Trying to ignore his reddening face, the mad scientist chose to focus on the original offer of friendship. This hugging business could be figured out later. "I don't quite understand why you would want to be my friend. I am a supervillain, after all."

"Were."

"Huh?"

"The pardon gave you a clean slate. You aren't a supervillain anymore. You don't even have a criminal record. All of it was expunged for saving everyone," she reminded him. "If you wanted, you could probably start over from just before you started up villainy. You're…" She wasn't entirely sure how to say it. "...free."

Astonished, overwhelmed by the sudden simultaneous opening and closing of doors, all Drakken could do was stare at the redhead, flapping his speechless mouth for several seconds. He'd never considered it before. She was right! As much as that usually galled him, Kimberly was completely correct. He was free and clear, a normal citizen now. But even considering that...

"You are not a supervillain, or even a regular villain anymore. You're Drew Lipsky, mad scientist with too much real estate," Kim stated with finality, ignoring her own self-righteous indignation at not reporting his haphazard attempt to build a death SAT in favor of actually helping him out. "And I'm serious on being your friend. If you don't want to be my friend, I'll understand." She shrugged. "Having me foil all your take-over-the-world schemes would be a bit frustrating, and I know you mad scientists are pretty spiteful."

He brushed off the minor barb easily, as he was too deep in thought to hear the end part of her little speech. It seemed too good to be true. Being friends with him... Well, it just wasn't done. Drakken knew he was practically ancient to teenagers, especially those whose parents he went to college with. Not quite believing her, he hopefully blurted, "For realsies? On everything?"

'Just like Ron...' she thought with some affection. "For real." Smirking, she rhetorically asked, "Do I lie?"

"Well, there was that one Halloween a few years ago..." Drew replied, not catching her tone.

"So not what I meant," Kim said, eyebrow quirked and a genuine smile gracing her face. "Anyway..." She extended a hand to Drakken, her intention clear. "Friends?"

Drakken stared, flabbergasted, at Kimberly's hand. She was just... Really going to be his friend? Even after their history? His history? It was almost too unbelievable to... Well, believe. But here she was, offering a handshake to seal their new status as friends. Maybe he should ask her to be his friend on FaciaLit. Or would that be too soon? He could figure that out later.

But…

It couldn't be that easy. It was never that easy. Nothing ever came easily for him, save for failure.

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he asked, "And what do you want in return?"

Drakken couldn't really think of anything that she might want from him. She already had everything she could ever want!

Kim shook her head. "Nothing. I just want to be your friend."

She wasn't sure how she could convince him. It wasn't like she kept anything that only friends of hers could-.. OH! That was an idea!

"Here." Kim pulled out a sheet of paper from her hip pack pocket - something she kept on hand as a just-in-case - and wrote down her personal number. She handed it to him and nodded. "This is my phone number."

"Your phone… Number…?" He looked down at it and back up at her several times, expecting the paper to vanish from his grasp.

Drakken then tilted his head. That was… Strange. Hm. How many personal phone numbers did that make for him to put in his phone? It was… Three. His mother… His throat tightened briefly, thinking about the no-contact phase she was going through. There was also Shego… But she told him to lose her number. He kept it from the small sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe…

Anyway! He shook his head to clear it, trying not to think of those things. And now he had Kimberly's phone number.

...he could always use her number for evil. Use it to track her and put it up on annoying websites for people to bother her. But…

For some reason, his petulant anger at the world had shriveled up somewhat. Her points were good ones. He hadn't thought about it before. A fresh start, with all of the resources available to him to get started at some form of legitimacy.

What in the world could he do now that he could do whatever he wanted? The vast number of possibilities nearly overwhelmed him!

"What should I do first?" He wasn't sure why he asked Kimberly that. It was probably because she seemed to have everything go right for her, so she might have a better idea of what to do with his newfound freedom than he did.

Kim's lips twitched. He was actually asking for advice? He must have been pretty lost to do that!

She thought about it for a moment. What could Doctor Drakken do to get his life back on track without going vicious supervillain?

Doctor…

"You could go back to school." She lowered her hand and nudged him in the side. "Actually earn that doctorate and be a real doctor."

He bristled at the completely unnecessary comment. "Hey! I'm smart enough to not need that to be a real doctor! I-.."

"Oh really?" Kim tilted an eyebrow at him. "Which institution gave you your degree?"

He began petulantly, raising a finger in protest, "I got it from-.." Drakken stopped short, brows furrowing "...erm…" Drat. She had him there. Instead of admitting defeat, he crossed his arms and muttered, "Maybe I would have one if the bigwigs at the various colleges weren't so stupid."

Kim laughed a genuine laugh. Drakken was pretty silly sometimes. She already knew that, but now that she wasn't a target for his wrath that required her to throw quips at him she could acknowledge it without the barbs she normally would fire off.

Drakken snorted and pulled his arms tighter against himself at her reaction. As expected, she was laughing at him. Even with a newly-formed friendship he was the butt of a joke. He knew that from his days at MIST. He was the butt of every joke. Why would this friendship be any different?

The redhead frowned at him as he closed up. She hadn't meant to do that. The laugh wasn't harsh at all!

She looked up at him seriously. "I wasn't laughing at you. Not completely, anyway. I was laughing at how you're acting. Sometimes you're funny without really trying."

His brow drooped. Great. Apparently he was a jokester without meaning to. An unintentional class clown. Like the buffoon.

Kim rolled her eyes. He was so, so stubborn and weird! ...but then again, she liked weird, thinking about Ron for a moment.

Drakken decided to change the subject. He didn't want to even think about the very idea that himself and the buffoon were similar.

"So, you're serious? About being my friend?" He looked back down at the paper again. "This isn't one of those rejection hotlines, is it?"

Kim stared. Wow. He really must have no idea about friendship if that was one of his first thoughts on it. "No. That's my real phone number."

"Okay…" He decided to take it at face value. If this was all a trick he could just go and annihilate her home with a death ray or something as revenge. "So…" Kicking at the ground a little, he asked, "What do friends normally do?"

"We can hang out. Do things together." Kim paused at that. Normally she'd hang out with them at Bueno Nacho, or went shopping, or other outside public activities. But considering it was Drakken… She was willing to be his friend, but she was definitely not at all ready to be seen in public with him. So she rushed, "Here. Away from other people."

"Hang out?" He pondered that. Hanging out. It sounded almost like when he would do karaoke night with Shego. Being around people like that. He'd written karaoke nights into Shego's contract in a footnote. So that meant that other people would willingly go to karaoke and bowling with him? That sounded amazing!

He immediately brightened up. Just because they couldn't go out didn't mean that there was nothing they could do! A million bajillion ideas cascaded in his mind on what they could do while 'hanging out'!

Kim stared at him as he made a little squeeing noise. He looked like he was about to pop from excitement. Had he really been that lonely? She shifted from one foot to the other and then winced. The beating she took from the vines was starting to get to her. She was sure she would develop more than a few bruises.

But to save someone? It was worth it.

Drakken caught her reaction and asked, "Hm? What's wrong?"

"I, uhm…" She waved it off. "It's no big… Just going to feel the vine attack for a while…"

"Oh." Then he got it. "Oh!" He cringed, then threw the couple of vines that were hanging out a glare. "Nnnngh…!"

What should he do now? He didn't want her to ditch him when he was on the cusp of having her as a friend! Think! What would help out with this?

Then he straightened up as he realized what he could do! It was brilliant!

"Did you want an ice pack?" He paused, then muttered, "I think I have an ice pack. Shego took most everything when she left, so she might've also taken those…"

Kim smiled. It was strange, hearing her arch-foe - scratch that, previous arch-foe - talk about helping her out. She said, "Frozen peas would work just as well."

He made a face and made a barfing noise. "Eugh, peas? No thank you!" Sniffing haughtily, he noted, "We eat frozen corn around here!"

"'We'?" She tilted her eyebrow.

He thought for a second. "...well, me."

"I thought so." Kim rubbed at the back of her ribs, where it ached the most. "Any chance we could go get that stuff now?"

"Sure!" Drakken thought on all the ideas on what they could do together, as friends! He couldn't quite keep the excitement down; when had he ever been able to say that seriously about anyone? He waved for her to follow him as he began to ramble, "I have a bunch of board games that I got for the henchmen! We could also watch movies. Or, oh! What about building something cool together? We could build a laser!"

"What non-evil thing could you do with a laser?" she asked pointedly.

"I… Erm…" He stopped walking for a moment before he sputtered, "I-.. I'll think of something!"

Nodding assuredly, he resumed his march toward his kitchen.

Kim shook her head at his antics. Build a laser, huh? It wasn't like she had too much going on that day. Ron was busy, there was no school going on, all her college paperwork was taken care of, she hadn't had any other calls… It might be fun, being on the other end of the creation and destruction of something Drakken built.

She snickered to herself quietly so her new friend wouldn't hear. Man, Ron wasn't going to believe this…


End file.
